Miller: Ducks' Smith-Pelly delivers Quick strike

Ducks' Ryan Getzlaf fires a shot off Kings' Jonathan Quick for the score during the first period at Staples Center on Saturday evening. , ED CRISOSTOMO, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

LOS ANGELES – He spent 55 games this season playing for the Norfolk Admirals, a team that has jerseys featuring cartoonish anchors on the shoulders.

On Saturday, in the latest game the Ducks really, really had to win, Devante Smith-Pelly skated with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, an assignment that can strap a very real anchor across a player’s back.

“There’s a little pressure, yeah,” Smith-Pelly said afterward. “Those guys are both world-class players. If I try to play like them, it isn’t going to work. I just have to stay true to myself and my game.”

Asked to define that game, Smith-Pelly added, “Bang bodies and go the net.”

That’s precisely what he did in the first period, gliding into position to take a perfect, blind pass from Perry and lift the puck over Jonathan Quick, igniting a 2-0 Game 4 victory over the Kings at Staples Center.

The win not only pulled the Ducks even in the second-round series, 2-2, it also continued to chip away at the notion that Quick is armed with almost comic skills.

Later in the first period, the Ducks scored again when Getzlaf’s second effort after he had skated past Quick somehow ended up in the Kings’ net.

So stunning was the moment that, in his zeal to celebrate the goal, Perry threw his hands into the air and his stick followed, the thing going airborne when Perry lost his grip.

Somewhat incredibly and completely hilariously, he caught the stick again before it landed, Perry proving that – as hockey scouts like to say – he has great hands.

The Ducks couldn’t beat Quick from point-blank for nearly three games and now here was Getzlaf scoring basically from behind the net.

And just that, well, that quick, the Kings were following the Ducks’ lead. Quick went from being hard to beat to hard to find. He opened the second period on the bench in favor of Martin Jones.

This series suddenly has developed into Goalie Gate, the teams changing netminders almost as often as the Angels have changed leadoff hitters.

“Nothing,” Getzlaf said afterward when asked about Quick’s removal, “surprises me in this series anymore.”

The Ducks have started a different goalie in three consecutive games, meaning, with only two more additions for Games 5 and 6, they’d have a genuine starting rotation.

Saturday, Coach Bruce Boudreau benched veteran Jonas Hiller and went with rookie John Gibson, who, in his most recent game on Wednesday, lost to the St. John’s IceCaps. Thankfully for the Ducks and Kings, the IceCaps aren’t eligible to play for the Stanley Cup.

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